obduracy

English

Etymology

From obdurate +‎ -cy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒb.dʊ.ɹə.si/, /-djʊ-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑbdʊɹəsi/, /-djʊ-/

Noun

obduracy (plural obduracies)

1. The state of being obdurate, intractable, or stubbornly inflexible.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     By this hand thou, thinkeſt me as farre in the diuels booke, as thou and Falſtaffe, for obduracie and perſiſtancie, let the end trie the man, [...]

   • 1713, Nehemiah Walter, A discourse concerning the wonderfulness of Christ, Boston: Eleazer Phillips, page 156:

     It might also serve to condemn the obduracy and hard-heartedness of the Jews, who relented not, when even the earth trembled and the rocks rent.

   • 1812, Percy Bysshe Shelley, On Leaving London for Wales, lines 5–6:

     True mountain Liberty alone may heal
     The pain which Custom's obduracies bring.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 132:

     She snatched up a stick and hit Cora across the rump with it. The stick was rotten and broke, without having caused Cora to budge an inch. Exasperated at an image of obduracy, the old woman scrabbled up another stick and began whacking at Cora with it[.]

   • 2007 June 20, Simon Hughes, “Chanderpaul finally outwitted by master”, in Telegraph.co.uk:

     Chanderpaul's obduracy might have broken lesser men, but Panesar more than matched him for relentlessness.

Related terms

• obdurate (adjective)

Translations

The state of being obdurate, intractable, or stubbornly inflexible

• Bulgarian: закоравялост f (zakoravjalost)
• Catalan: obstinació f
• Dutch: koppigheid (nl) f
• Finnish: itsepintaisuus (fi), jääräpäisyys (fi)
• French: entêtement (fr) m, obstination (fr) f
• German: Verstocktheit (de) f
• Greek: σκληροκαρδία (el) f (sklirokardía), πώρωση (el) f (pórosi), ισχυρογνωμοσύνη (el) f (ischyrognomosýni)
• Irish: aindiúid f
• Polish: upór (pl) m
• Portuguese: obstinação (pt)
• Russian: упря́мство (ru) n (uprjámstvo)
• Spanish: obstinación (es) f

References

• obduracy in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• “obduracy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “obduracy”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)